As far as a professional, well made bow goes, I'm not so sure about willow. But when I was a little kid, I made all kinds of bows out of the black willow growing on the banks of a lake near my house, and I had a blast. I'd like to try making one again, properly. They're pretty springy, and I always thought it might be a neat idea to try taking two staves with a more dramatic natural taper (as the trees I was taking my bowstaves from had a fair amount) and splicing them together at the thick ends - voila, a naturally tillered bow! I never quite got to that before my summer bowmaking season ended, and after that year, bows unfortunately fell by the wayside. Even not knowing anything about needing to try the wood before I started tillering (it was strip the bark and go for my first bows) resulted in reliable, tough bows at a low enough poundage to be good for kids (my best friend and I) and shot my goose feather arrows clean into the neighbors' property, which was plenty good for me.
This really makes me want to go back to the lake and have another go at it. I miss the pure joy of the bent stick, with the innocent pride of not knowing there was anything technically wrong with what I'd done.
